Had you played some free jazz to ninety five per cent of the people who had made “Take Five” a smash, they would have run for cover behind the latest release by Pat Boone. All records in the Top Ten (especially those that get to Number One) have far more in common with each other than with whatever genre they have developed from or sprung out of.

I knew a lot of the early story from having already read up on Julian Cope and Ken Campbell, though I didn't know how much of The KLF's imagery came straight out of the Illuminatus!I remember playground rumours that their name stood for ‘Kings Love Fucking’ (it doesn't, I don't think) and I remember feeling baffled by the news in 1994 that they had deleted all their recordings and burnt a million pounds in cash on a remote Scottish island. Turn Up The Strobe tells the story of two of the Twentieth Century’s most vital artists, and those who understood them. The precise function the major record companies will play in the music business as we turn the corner into the 21 st century is something we are not going to bother guessing at. Even if the unsuspecting artiste doesn’t know the above, rest assured most of the record business does but for some lemming-like reason refuses to acknowledge it.

They might have a number of studios offering a range of services, from four track to forty eight track, SSL and manual and, more than likely nowadays, a programming suite replacing the need for a four/eight/sixteen track demo studio. THIS BOOK IS SOLD SUBJECT TO THE CONDITION THAT IT SHALL NOT BY WAY OF TRADE OR OTHERWISE BE LENT, RESOLD, HIRED OUT OR OTHERWISE CIRCULATED WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER’S PRIOR CONSENT IN ANY FORM OF BINDING OR COVER OTHER THAN THAT IN WHICH IT lS PUBLISHED AND WITHOUT A SIMILAR CONDITION INCLUDING THIS CONDITION BEING IMPOSED IN THE SUBSEOUENT PUBLISHER. As you sit there in the sucker’s seat in the manager’s office he will smell the scent of securities. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the ending (for a variety of spoilery reasons) but it's definitely a rewarding read.

The duo’s fanbase remains as strong as their mystique, and interest in their activities seems to grow year on year. At times I started to wonder if Higgs was becoming a bit too enamoured of the magical thinking that guided the increasingly mad decision-making of, especially, Bill Drummond. Certainly more convincing than the straight rational idea that the KLF were ‘just attention-seeking arseholes’. If this lad were to start brandishing a copy of this publication by The Timelords, you would advise him that he had been had and should get a refund on the book instantly before going out to look for an available vacancy on a youth training scheme.

Questo libro è un racconto epico di una delle vicende più interessanti della produzione musicale pop della storia, ma è anche un manuale etico di orientamento nel mondo contemporaneo che non indulge nell'imporre qualsivoglia insegnamento. Don’t hide behind any naive “no compromise” shields, the only thing you must not compromise on is your final goal: that Olympian slot on Top of the Pops. From this comparitively straightforward starting point, John Higgs blasts off into the stratosphere, using The KLF’s monetary immolation as a launching pad to explore the history of the modern world. The common ingredient these records had that was far more important than the icing of “Now” style that covers the age old Golden Rules of Pop, is that they are being made by complete unknowns. Sometimes, the music is just a means to an end – in their case, a million-quid bonfire that Higgs suggests may be “a magical act that forged the 21st century”.People waste a lot of time, effort and money having stationery produced when getting a new business off the ground.

Never before had one band possessed the power or inclination to excite high street nightclubs and the contemporary art world simultaneously. John Higgs overlays a standard chronological history of The KLF (a wonderful, and very successful, pop duo active in the late 1980s and early 1990s who adopted the philosophy contained in The Illuminatus! The book is a gauche attempt to weave together the story of a band (about which I actually learned very little, but perhaps and in retrospect more than I needed to) with an eclectic mix of incongruous, incoherent and poorly stitched together theories about art, psychology, alchemy, magic and (I’m serious) the world financial crisis of 2008. If there are any other records you want to add to the pile make sure there is a very good reason why they should be there and make sure they were never released as indie records or had any punky associations. If the studio you end up using is further than you can travel to on a daily basis, this will be no problem; all studios are only too willing to organise accommodation as part of the over all deal.

There is so much here that stopped me in my tracks and made me think, and there were times when ‘examples’ seemed a little farfetched and stretched a little beyond belief.